Magazine for safety razor blades



Jan. 15, 1946. N. TESTI MAGAZINE FOR SAFETY RAZOR BLADES Filed Dec. 6, 1944 Patented Jan. 15, 1946 MAGAZINE FOR SAFETY RAZOR BLADES Mass, assignor to Gillette Nicholas Testi, Boston,

Safety Razor Company, Boston,

poration of Delaware Application December 6, 1944, Serial No. 566,850

Claims.

This invention relates to magazines for safety razor blades and comprises an improved magazine so organized that it may be used to present a fresh blade to a safety razor and to withdraw a used blade in a single operation. This is desirable because it relieves the user of the necessity of touching either blade while it is being presented or withdrawn and thereby obviates the danger of cutting his fingers or of impairing the keenness of the shaving edge of the fresh blade.

In certain types of safety razors the blade is retained in shaving position by short spurs or pins from which it must be stripped or disengaged before it can be withdrawn. I have found that disengagement of a blade from these retaining spurs is facilitated by transversely flexing the blade prior to its withdrawal. The magazine of the present invention is designed to effect this desirable and novel result. Going more into detall, the magazine of my invention is provided with means for engaging a blade located in flat condition upon the blade seat of the razor and flexing it transversely so that it is bowed out of en gagement with its retaining spurs and is accordingly freed for withdrawal from the razor when the razor and the magazine are separated.

In one aspect, the invention consists in improvements upon the magazine disclosed in my prior application Serial No. 562,966, filed Novem- 30 her 11, 1944. The magazine of that application is arranged to withdraw the used blade in flat condition from the safety razor and, accordingly, means must be provided for elevating the used blade sufliciently to disengage'it from the retaining spurs. While in some instances the transverse bowing or flexing imparted to the used blade by the magazine of this invention may be sufficient of itself to effect the desired disengagement. it willbe understood that the bowing or flexing effect is desirable and useful also in connection with razor constructions in which the disengagement of the blade is effected by elevating means in that the bowing effect imparted to the blade reduces the amount of lifting otherwise neces sary and a more compact construction of razor is thus rendered practicable.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. l is a view in perspective, on an enlarged scale, showing the magazine in operative relation to a safety razor; and

Mass., a cor- Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view of one end of the magazine and a portion of the safety razor.

The magazine and razor-herein shown for illustrative purposes are designed to handle a doubleedged blade of the well-known Gillette type, but the invention is not limited in its application to that or to any specific type of blade and with suitable modifications may be adapted to deal with blades of many different shapes.

The magazine comprises an elongated receptacle of sheet metal or suitable plastic material hav ing a bottom I ll, side walls II and I2 and a top formed by two intumed flanges l3 and H which are spaced from each other at their opposite edges. The receptacle formed by these walls is open at its ends so that a portion of the safety razor may be telescopically received therein and also to afford exit passage for the blades. Crossbars l5 and iii are arrangerijifi the respective ends of the magazine and these bars present'guide--\ surfaces which control the presentation of the safety razor to the magazine.

Within the enclosure of the magazine i pro vided a rib i1 and two studs one of which it is shown in Fig. 1. These projections serve to locate in the magazine a stack of longitudinal slotted blades with which the magazine may be supplied by the manufacturers. As herein shown, the individual blades of the stack are held in staggered relation, their ends being located alternately beyond and within the stop l8. This arrangement has the effect of fanning out the ends of the blades and so providing desirable clearance for operating the feeding device in advancing one blade after another from the stack. .A forked and curved spring I 9 underlies the blade stack and at all times presses the uppermost blade of the stack into contact with the flanges l3 and I4 forming the top of the blade enclosure.

The magazine is provided with a feeding device comprising a slide 20 which fits across the top of the magazine and has down-turned side walls that are flanged beneath the magazine. The bridge of the feeding device is provided internally with an abutment for advancing the uppermost blade of the stack. It is provided externally with a double-ended blade engaging device of sheet metal comprising at each end a pair of side arms 2| and 22, flaring upwardly at their outer ends and a central arm 23 spaced between the two side arms and flaring downwardly at its outer end. These three arms are disposed in substantially the same plane and it will be apparent that, when they are forced upon the end of a flexible blade. the center of the blade will be bowed upwardly .2 amm andpassabovethecentralarm liwhilethetwo edges of the blade will be bowed downwardly and assundertheside arms2l and22..

The mm with which the magazine is intended tobcus'edisshowninl lgland partiallyin Fig. 2. It comprises a blade-supporting and guard member 28 having a pair of spaced spurs or blade-retaining pins as and an intermediate blade elevating rib 30 which is tapered longitudinally in both directions. The member 28 supplies the blade seat of the safety razor organization and is convex in transverse contour. Cooperating with the guard member 28 is a cap member if having a blade-engaging face which is transversely concave. The cap has a threaded connection with a clamping spindle within the handle 32 so'that it may be drawn into blade-clamping relation with the guard member 28.

The blade shown in Fig. 2 is represented as resting upon the guardmember 28 of the razor without having been moved longitudinally from its shaving position, but as having been engaged by the feeding device of the magazine preparatory to withdrawal. The blade 25 is formed of thin sheet steel, sharpened at both edges for cutting and provided in each corner with a reentrant notch. These notches define elongated unsharpened end portions in the blade. The blade is also provided with a longitudinal medial slot 26 provided with various intermediate enlargements. One of these enlargements 21 is designed to receive the blade-retaining spurs 29 of the guard member.

In use, the cap I! is released so that it may be separated to some extent from the guard member 28 and thus leave the used blade 25 lying in a flat condition thereon. The razor and magazine are now brought together by telescopically insorting one end of the guard member 28 into that open end ofthermagazine indicated by the airmen its top flanges. The feeding device is then moved toward the razor, that is to say toward the left as in Fig. 1. The uppermost blade 25 in the stack is accordingly advanced and passes into the razor beneath the used blade already located therein. As the feeding device approaches the end of its stroke the right-hand end of the used blade is engaged by the projecting arms 2|, 22 and 23 of the feeding device, as shown in Fig. 2, and the blade is accordingly transversely flexed and bowed so that the sides of its recess 21 are carried upwardly to a position above the end of the spurs 2!. The blade is thus released and when the magazine and razor are separated the blade is withdrawn from the safety razor in the manner suggested in Fig. 2. The user is now free at any convenient time to remove the used blade from the feeding device and dispose of it.

Having thus disclosed my invention and described in detail an illustrative embodiment thereof, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A blade magazine, having in combination, an elongated receptacle for a stack of blades, and a 'reciprocatory blade-feeding device movable on the receptacle for advancing one blade at a time from the stack therein, said feeding device having blade-gripping means operating in its advancing movement for engaging a used blade lying in flat condition on the blade seat of a razor and flexing it transversely, thus bowing it from the blade seat.

' 2. A blade magazine, having in combination an elongated receptacle for a stack of blades, and a reciprocatory blade-feeding device movable on the receptacle for advancing one blade at a time from the stack'therein, said feeding device having spaced blade-gripping fingers operating in its advancing movement for engaging a used blade in the razor and bowing it into transverse upwardly convex contour.

3. A blade magazine comprising an elongated receptacle containing a stack of blades and having an exit opening at one end, a feed slide movable longitudinally upon the receptacle toward the exit opening, and a blade-gripping device carried by the feed slide, projecting in advance thereof and having arms shaped to deflect in one direction the center of a blade located adjacent to the said exit opening and to deflect the edges of the blade in the opposite direction.

4. A blade magazine comprising an elongated receptacle, and a blade-gripping device carried thereon and having arms shaped to deflect in one direction the center of a blade disposed endwise with respect to the receptacle and to deflect the edges of the blade in the opposite direction.

5. In a blade magazine, a blade-gripping device including in its structure spaced upwardly flared arms and an intermediate downwardly-flared arm.

NICHOLAS TESTI. 

